Accidental chicken host

[LarryTheWelsumer]

Greetings from north central Florida. I’m a single mom with a 16 year old son at home being homeschooled and a 21 year old son at university. I have an apparently feral rooster who has taken residence in my yard. I have many questions, as I’ve never kept chickens nor been around them much. I’ve named him Larry, and from my research he clearly matches the Welsumer breed. Larry has some kind of scaly skin issue on his neck, and black spots on his cockscomb. I know the former isn’t healthy so I’m looking for a way to treat it, but don’t know if the latter is abnormal or not. I’ll be looking through the posts to see what applies to him. Larry is a beautiful boy despite his skin condition. He has enriched my life in the short time he’s been here, so I’m feeding him and hoping to provide for his needs.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Poor Larry has been in a bad fight. The black spots all over his comb, face and wattles are injuries. I cannot see the skin on his neck very well. You might want to grab him after nightfall and have your son hold him so you can get better pictures of his neck so you can post them in a new thread in the ER Forum for help in treating it.
I would immediately stop feeding him corn and go out and get a bag of either Flock Raiser or a 20-22% protein broiler feed and give him that instead. You can also feed him some scrambled eggs.
While you are at the feed store, pick up a bottle of rooster booster or Poultry Nutri-drench and give him about 1/2 ml daily directly to the side of his beak and let it trickle in so he can drink it on his own.
Proper nutrition will go a long way to helping him heal.
Good luck with him and getting him on the mend!

ETA - not that it makes a bit of difference, but he's also a mixed breed. Wellies don't have feathered legs. And he's a young cockerel.

 

[Blue Raptor]

Greetings from north central Florida. I’m a single mom with a 16 year old son at home being homeschooled and a 21 year old son at university. I have an apparently feral rooster who has taken residence in my yard. I have many questions, as I’ve never kept chickens nor been around them much. I’ve named him Larry, and from my research he clearly matches the Welsumer breed. Larry has some kind of scaly skin issue on his neck, and black spots on his cockscomb. I know the former isn’t healthy so I’m looking for a way to treat it, but don’t know if the latter is abnormal or not. I’ll be looking through the posts to see what applies to him. Larry is a beautiful boy despite his skin condition. He has enriched my life in the short time he’s been here, so I’m feeding him and hoping to provide for his needs.

Welcome to BYC!!

 

[picklestheduck]

Welcome to BYC! You are so awesome for wanting to help this little guy! You have gotten some great advice above.

 

[Grammy60]

Hello and welcome to BYC Best of luck with Larry, he's beautiful

 

[LarryTheWelsumer]

Welcome to BYC!!

Thank you so much!

 

[SilverBirds]

Welcome to BYC!

Poor Larry is pretty beat. @DobieLover gave you some great pointers. I'd also build him a coop to keep him safe if you haven't already.

His breed looks more like a Copper Maran or Marans mix.

 

[LarryTheWelsumer]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Poor Larry has been in a bad fight. The black spots all over his comb, face and wattles are injuries. I cannot see the skin on his neck very well. You might want to grab him after nightfall and have your son hold him so you can get better pictures of his neck so you can post them in a new thread in the ER Forum for help in treating it.
I would immediately stop feeding him corn and go out and get a bag of either Flock Raiser or a 20-22% protein broiler feed and give him that instead. You can also feed him some scrambled eggs.
While you are at the feed store, pick up a bottle of rooster booster or Poultry Nutri-drench and give him about 1/2 ml daily directly to the side of his beak and let it trickle in so he can drink it on his own.
Proper nutrition will go a long way to helping him heal.
Good luck with him and getting him on the mend!

ETA - not that it makes a bit of difference, but he's also a mixed breed. Wellies don't have feathered legs. And he's a young cockerel.

Thank you so much for your advice. My son won’t touch animals, and Larry has been feral, roosting in the trees for some time if my neighbors are correct. He doesn’t allow me too close yet. He is a docile boy, though, and let’s me a little closer each time I feed him. I’m going to build him a house as soon as possible. I’m hoping to have some more appropriate food and medicine for his neck today. I don’t go into the city often as everything I do is at home. The corn has been a morning treat, then oats the rest of the day. He only showed up 6 days ago and today makes the third day I’ve been feeding him. We did find a big, juicy worm for him two days ago. Good to know he’s a mixed breed, thank you. His coloring looks exactly like some of the Welsumer rooster photos I’ve seen online.

 

[LarryTheWelsumer]

Welcome to BYC!

Poor Larry is pretty beat. @DobieLover gave you some great pointers. I'd also build him a coop to keep him safe if you haven't already.

His breed looks more like a Copper Maran or Marans mix.

Thank you so much. I’m planning to build a coop, but things happen slowly around here as we have so many things that need doing and I have physical issues that slow me down most days. We’re still unpacking after our move in October! Fortunately he seems able to stay safe, or he wouldn’t have survived his lonely life to date. It’s also generally warm in Florida, with only occasional cold snaps. Eventually he will probably be housed in an enclosure with my future garden and encouraged to control garden pests.

 

[sourland]

Good morning, and welcome to BYC. Great insight and suggestions from @DobieLover. Given time, Larry will heal and be a beautiful bird. He would like some hens for company.